A San Jose police officer investigates the scene of a homicide at Lanai Ave. and Denali Way in San Jose, Calif. on April 3, 2014. Two gang members were convicted Jan. 18, 2018, of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Eric Mendoza, 27, who was not a gang member.

Four years after a young dad made the fatal mistake of trusting he could look for a parking spot in East San Jose without risking his life, the two Norteño gang members accused of gunning him down in cold blood were convicted Thursday of first-degree murder.

Richard Guerrero, now 25, and his brother James, 23, now face 50 years to life in prison for killing Eric Mendoza. It took the jury less than five hours to find them guilty after a two-and-half-month trial in Morgan Hill.

Santa Clara County prosecutor Brian Buckelew said the fatal encounter unfolded while Mendoza, 27, was looking for a parking space on Lanai Way after returning home about 3:30 a.m. from the job he took as a night janitor to support his girlfriend and infant son.

The Guerreros were driving up and down the street in a black Jeep with their lights off, according to video from surveillance cameras mounted on homes and businesses in the area, Buckelew said. He argued that the brothers were on the hunt for rival Sureños.

“They didn’t find any, so they shot a regular guy,” Buckelew said.

Richard Guerrero fired six shots at Mendoza from a .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol, hitting him twice in the back, the prosecutor said. James Guerrero, the driver, was found equally culpable under an aiding and abetting theory.

When the crime was first reported, some of the victim’s relatives believed that Mendoza was shot when he left his apartment to move his car out of the path of arriving street sweepers, Buckelew said. However, that was not the case, he said.

Mendoza’s body was discovered by his girlfriend who went out looking for him when he didn’t return home after work as expected, the prosecutor said.

Judge Paul R. Bernal is set to sentence the men Feb. 26. The sentencing will be held in the South County courthouse in Morgan Hill, as was the trial, because there were no available courtrooms in San Jose, where the crime took place.

Tracey Kaplan is a reporter for the Bay Area News Group based at The Mercury News. A former courts reporter, she is now reporting primarily on consumer issues, and welcomes any tips/suggestions, especially on how to make ends meet in the Bay Area. Watch for a series this summer on her personal solution to the housing crisis -- spending her nest egg on turning a cargo van into what will eventually be her full-time home. For more info, see @itsavanlife on Instagram and our Facebook group, Full House: Inside the Bay Area housing shortage.